Is it all in a name?
My 2nd to last post was about my great new laptop, the Toshiba Portege R500. You'll remember I commented on all of the features it has which the new Macbook Air is missing. That despite the marginal difference in thickness, and less weight.
Yet, of course, the "Air" will be making headlines in sales this week, and that got me to thinking about why. Of course there are some inalienable conclusions in the different ways the two computers were described to the public. And these differences are reflected even in the way owners talk about their machines.
With the Mac, announcements are kept as closely guarded secrets until the annual meeting of the acolytes in San Francisco. Then it gets the treatment of the presentation guru himself, Steve, in a keynote speech no less. Besides all of that, the computer gets a great name. The Macbook "Air."
The Toshiba, the "world's thinnest notebook with an optical drive," with the "thinnest display," with the "thinnest optical drive," and the "lightest notebook" was launched in June 2007. Did you know that? I didn't. I actually had to search for the press release. No keynote speech here.
Talk to a Mac owner, and they talk in loving terms about their Macbook Pro, or their iMac or, this week, their Macbook Air. Talk to your average PC notebook owner, and they mention their latest "Tosh" or "the X61" (what does that even mean?)
The Toshiba (HP, Sony, Lenovo etc etc) all have inscrutable model numbers. Oh, there are model names, but apart from the Asus Lamborghini, or the Acer Ferrari, even those are diluted with different model numbers. I mean, why couldn't my new computer be called the "Switchblade" or "Rapier" or "Stealth." Rather than the "R500."
It's (still) a great machine. Now that everything I need is installed, and the new updates have settled down, the performance is more than commendable. In the next day or so I pick up the Port Replicator and 6 cell battery. Over the next couple of weeks I have a couple of presentations to deliver, not to mention a trip to the US. So look for the stress-test coming soon to a blog near you.
But, it seriously is cool enough to be called the "Rapier."
R42
